Team Anna core panel to be expanded

NEW DELHI: As Team Anna faced the heat of allegations of financial misconduct against some of its members, there were indications that Anna Hazare's core committee may be expanded.

Journalist Raju Parulekar, Hazare's official blogger, said a revamp was likely to take place soon, after more fissures surfaced in the core group with another member, Kumar Vishwas, seeking restructuring of the team. Medha Patkar also said "a bit of overhauling" was necessary because of allegations and core committee members being targeted.

In a letter to Hazare, Vishwas, a lecturer-poet, called for the existing team to be disbanded and a fresh one appointed in its place. He said it was worrying how certain Team Anna members were facing repeated attacks from anti-Anna campaigners on serious charges like graft.

He was apparently referring to Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and the Bhushans. "Such attacks and the subsequent clarifications will strengthen the conspiracy to divert the attention from the key issues... I request you to give greater representation to the core committee consisting of limited members and turn it into a hard-core committee comprising 121 crore people," he said,

Parulekar said the core group will meet on Saturday to decide on whether the present Team Anna core committee will continue as it is. The meeting to be held in Ghaziabad will not be attended by Hazare, who is on a vow of silence from October 16.

Though some team members have expressed concern over charges against key faces in the group, they are likely to be retained. "Things will change, because Anna wants them to change. Now the movement will be a pan-Indian movement. They are important members of Team Anna, of course they are important members, but Team Anna itself is going to change so their roles also might change," Parulekar said.

The friction within the anti-graft group has been deepening. Two activists Rajinder Singh and PV Rajagopal quit the team citing the political turn taken by Hazare's anti-corruption movement in the Hisar by-poll. The Congress lost the seat, which was won by Haryana Janhit Congress, a party supported by the BJP. Singh alleged that Hazare deviated from his objective by supporting a "corrupt" candidate.